Poseidon's Gift
by Bellismo
Summary: During Light and after Giant War. Percy loves gifts from his dad, after all, he doesn't get given that many. When one certain gift brings him and Annabeth to the FAYZ, how will they react? How will the story change? And why did Poseidon give Percy that gift?
1. The Gift

Disclaimer: I don't own the PJ series or the Gone series or any characters or places used.

**Percy**

I'm Percy. You've probably heard of me, but I'll fill you in in case you haven't.

Long story short I'm a Demi-god. My father is Poseidon, Greek god of the sea and horses, while my mother is a mortal. Me, Annabeth (my girlfriend) and Grover (my satyr friend) have saved the world a few times from Kronos and Gaea. There were other people helping us along the way, like Luke stabbed himself to stop Kronos. I live in Camp Half-blood for most of the year. It's one of the only two places in the world considered safe for people like me. The other camp is for the Romans, they exist as well.

This is about one of the craziest adventures I have ever been on. Ever.

It all started last year…

I was sitting in my cabin, thinking. After we stopped Gaea Camp Half-Blood has been really peaceful. I keep waiting for someone to say _a Titan is rising and they want to kill us all! It's the end of the world and Olympus!_ but nobody has, yet. It just felt too peaceful, but I didn't want to complain. I had lots of friends, a nice step-father, my mum is alive and happy and I have Annabeth. I looked out my window and watched people training, playing and playing pranks on each other. I smiled.

"Seaweed brain!" Annabeth shouted her nickname for me. I looked at her. She was walking to my cabin with something in her hand, it looked like a box. "Percy! Where are you?"

"I'm over here!" I shouted. I wondered what she wanted. She looked serious. It probably had something to do with the box.

Annabeth walked into my cabin. Her grey eyes sparkled with excitement. I looked at the brown box she was holding and I knew it was for me. It had to be why she was looking for me. I felt disappointed and excited at the same time. Annabeth had only come because she had to give me something, but I was being given something which might be important.

"It's from your father." Is all she said to me. Those four words had me sitting at the edge of my bed. After all, my dad is a god. A powerful god as well. Usually he didn't give me gifts directly because of Zeus. I held the box wondering what Poseidon could possibly give me.

"Are you going to open it?" I stared at the box for a second before opening it. Then everything went wrong.

Something made a light so bright we both had to cover our eyes. I would tell you I knew exactly what was happening or had some sort of plan but that would be a lie. I had lots of enemies, but most of them would be more likely to just fight me when I go home during the school year. Then the ground seemed to drop from beneath me, almost like I was shadow-travelling but with light instead of shadows.

Then I was falling.

And falling.

And falling.

I blacked out as soon as I hit the water.

**Sam**

I looked at the FAYZ barrier, thinking. I did thought a lot now, whenever someone didn't want me to sort something out. I felt so old, but I guess that's what the FAYZ does. After all, most people don't have to think how to feed over 100 kids and keep everyone from fighting and stop everyone getting killed by bugs, coyotes, worms, snakes, Drake, Gaia, the list goes on.

The problem with thinking is that you remember stuff. I can't help but remember people like EZ, who we could've saved. So many people have died and I can't help but feel guilty for every single one. I have to be strong, though. About half the FAYZ are looking to me for help. If I broke down then everyone would probably panic and more kids would die.

I am Sam Temple and I am one of the most powerful mutants in the FAYZ. The other is my brother Caine but a few people within the FAYZ know that Astrid's brother, Little Pete had more power. Much more power. He had died she the bugs came, Astrid threw him to the bugs. I had asked Jack to do it but she did it first. Don't judge her though. Astrid knew Little Pete had created the FAYZ. The autistic kid had the power to make all the monster disappear, he just didn't know that he needed to. After Little Pete died all the bugs disappeared, which had been great at the time even though I had known Little Pete was dead. The only problem now was that the FAYZ was still here and the barrier was clear. Now people could speak to their parents whenever they felt like it.

You might think that that would be a good thing. The problem was, when I was doing things like fighting Gaia I had people watching in horror, the interviews made the world think we were monsters, especially the one Brianna decided to tell the world how much she wanted to chop up Drake with a bit of wire. The big problem is work, mainly: no one was doing it. Everyone was too busy talking to the outside world to do their jobs. Kids were starving while talking to their parents and they were vulnerable, Gaia could easily attack them.

I kept looking at the barrier up into the real sky and then I saw two people fall into the lake. They fell quite close to me so I was able to swim over there and bring them to shore. One of them was a boy with black hair and a tan. He was wearing an orange t-shirt with the words Camp Half-Blood written on it. He was also wearing blue jeans, socks, trainers and a necklace with lots of different beads on it. The first thing I noticed about his clothes, they were clean and they fitted him. Then I noticed how he was dry, after falling into a very wet lake.

The girl had blond hair and was also tan. She was wearing the same outfit as the boy but her necklace had more beads and she had a dagger strapped to her waist. Unlike the boy, the water actually made her wet.

I put them next to the lake and went to find Astrid. She would know what to do about this.

"Astrid, I know I sound crazy but two people just fell from the sky." I told her when I found her a few minutes later.

She looked at me for a moments and then asked, "Are they hurt?"

I shrugged. I had no idea how to tell if someone had internal bleeding or something. I was glad Astrid believed me, she always does with this kind of thing. Most people might think I was pranking them or crazy, but not Astrid.

"I'll go get Dahra and bring her here. You bring the people you saw here as well." I nodded before running towards the boy and girl. I could see Astrid running toward where Dahra takes care of everyone.

I had to carry them one at a time up to the boat. When they were both on the boat I waited for Astrid and Dahra to come.

** I would like to explain one thing- Percy wasn't wet because of his powers. I was reviewed on it and I would be grateful if you write reviews about mistakes only, not about things you didn't remember in the series.**


	2. The Misunderstanding

**Dahra**

I was just going round checking everyone who had injuries; after all I am the doctor of the FAYZ. I was looking at a kid's grazed knee just to make sure he wasn't going to get an infection.

Astrid ran into the room. I stood up quickly, if Astrid had run here it meant it was something big. I hoped Sam wasn't injured. That would be very bad. Caine might decide to take over and even if he didn't, everyone looked up to Sam. He was one of the most powerful mutants and had saved almost everyone's lives.

"Dahra, I need you to come look at this." She told me. I became even more worried. She couldn't bring them to me. That meant they were badly injured.

I finally decided to ask. "What is it? Is it Sam?"

"No, it's something else."

The worry drained from my body. Sam wasn't dying. He was fine. There was something else though, something important I needed to see. I jogged with Astrid to the boat.

After I followed Astrid into the kitchen I saw them. There were two people; around 16 would be my guess. The boy had black, messy hair and the girl had light brown or blond hair. The first thing I noticed was their clothes. They were clean.

"What happened to them?" I asked. They looked fine. Well fed and clean, the only problem was they looked like they were unconscious.

"I was by the lake," Explained Sam, "And then they fell from the barrier, into the lake."

"Both of them?" I tried to keep calm. This was another level of weird, even for the FAYZ. How had they managed to get through the barrier and how were they above it anyway? There wasn't a mountain by the lake, only the sky and I doubt they decided to skydive into the barrier.

"Yeah"

I looked at the boy. He was bone-dry. Maybe it was a power. Not even I believed that. I doubt he could keep his powers on when he was out cold. Anyway, what kind of power was waterproofing things you touched?

"Why is he dry?" I asked Sam.

Sam looked at the boy. He thought for a moment.

"I don't know. It should be impossible."

Astrid looked as well. She laughed. "I thought you knew by now Sam. Everything is possible in the FAYZ." I agreed with Astrid on that. Giant bugs, talking coyotes, the Darkness and mutants should all be impossible but we still had to cope with all the impossible stuff. I imagined the looks on the faces of the adults if I told them that.

_The FAYZ- where everything is possible. Have fun fighting an evil alien who can shoot lasers at you and kill you with the flick of her hands! Or perhaps you would like to be eaten from the inside by indestructible bugs that then eat more people when they are the size of trucks? Welcome to the FAYZ, have fun avoiding death!_

**Annabeth**

I was waking up. I could hear voices.

_Both…them_

_Dry?_

_Impossible._

I struggled to move, my body hurt everywhere. I would have to get Percy to heal me. My backpack was in my cabin. That meant I was going to have to survive without ambrosia and nectar. I wondered if Percy was even with me. The last thing I could remember was Percy opening his gift from Poseidon, then a blinding light and then we were falling towards a lake. At least I wasn't dead, I didn't want to go back to the Underworld anytime soon.

I slowly moved my arm. Good, I still had my dagger. I grabbed the hilt and prepared myself. The closest voice was to my somewhere to my left. I thought of a plan. They might be monsters, voices could be deceiving, or maybe they were rogue demi-gods who wanted to kill us. No. That doesn't make sense. These people obviously saved us from drowning, well they saved me anyway.

That didn't mean I had to like them. I really needed to go back to Camp. Percy was probably here though. They were probably amazed that he was dry, which would mean they don't know he's a son of Poseidon. I could use that to my advantage, but only if Percy had enough energy to control the water. He could still be unconscious, which would be a massive disadvantage.

I prepared myself. I didn't know how many people or whatever they were around me. I might have to protect Percy as well. This would be hard when I was healed and full of energy. I had a good chance of dying if I did it now. But then I thought of Percy's face. I needed to do this.

I prepared myself and then I jumped up and pressed the dagger to the random boy's throat. He didn't look like a monster, but looks can be deceiving as well. In the corner of my eye I could see two more people, around 15 years old would be my guess. They were both girls.

I looked at the boy. He had brown hair with blond streaks, but they looked natural not dyed. He had blue eyes, almost like Thalia. I hoped he wasn't a son of Zeus or I could die any second.

The good thing was the boy looked more surprised than angry. I could see him moving his hands though, and I prepared myself for some sort of storm to form.


	3. The FAYZ?

**Sam**

I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to hurt her but the girl was holding a dagger to my throat. I readied my hands in case she tried to kill Astrid or Dahra. I had a million questions to ask her but she was the one with the power to kill me.

I hoped nobody decided to come in and ask me to do something, if anyone knew there were two potentially dangerous people in the middle of town, then let's just say we would be in a bucket load of trouble.

"What's your name?" She asked. I doubted she knew I was a mutant; she didn't seem bothered about my hands at all.

"Sam." I decided to answer truthfully. I didn't think someone who fell into the FAYZ would know much about names. She might know about me but even if she did then it might make her back off.

"What are you?" She tried to press harder with her dagger but it didn't cut me. It felt like… nothing. It seemed to me like her dagger was passing through my neck, but that didn't make sense unless objects were now beginning to develop mutant powers. I hoped the boat didn't suddenly realize it could fly.

"What's your dagger doing?" I asked. Maybe she would know if her dagger had mutant powers. I quickly looked at Astrid. She looked like she was reaching for the knife she had. I sent her a look. I didn't want to harm her unless I had to. She seemed nice enough even with the dagger. She was probably scared. I didn't really blame her for threatening me.

Anyway, stabbing her would only make the situation worse.

She lowered the dagger and muttered something about _hating that stupid mortal._ She was definitely strange. I mean, referring to someone as a 'mortal' like you're not one is strange. Very strange. I hoped she wasn't another Gaiaphage in human form, like Nerezza. That would be scary.

"Where's Percy?" She asked angrily.

I pointed to where the boy who had fallen with her had been but he wasn't there. I looked around. The boat started rocking. I'll admit it. It was a bit too strange, even for the FAYZ.

The girl looked like she had just realized something before running out onto the deck. I sprinted after her.

When I got to the deck I saw what looked like a wave carrying her to a different part of the shore. That didn't really make sense either. There weren't any more waves unless a boat was moving. Then I saw the boy, Percy, and them waving on the shore before running off away. It looked like they were going to follow the barrier.

Me, Astrid and Dahra climbed onto the dock and sprinted after them. They couldn't just run away like that. If the coyotes found them then they would be dead meat. Brianna came up next to us.

"Do you want me to tie them up?" She asked me. I looked at how much further they were in front of us.

I nodded but she was already gone.

**Percy**

Annabeth and I were running as fast as we could. I looked at Annabeth before tripping over something. It was probably a rock. I put my hands forward to catch myself but they were tied behind my back.

I looked over at Annabeth to tell her to leave me behind. I could see she had fallen over as well. An adrenaline surge raced through me. They were going to catch up. I tried to undo the ropes but the were too tight. I looked around frantically. Who had tied me up anyway?

Now there were four people, three girls and one boy. The people I had seen on the boat looked like they were sprinting as fast as they could while the last girl looked like a sprint was a slow jog. I immediately knew she had tied us up. I gave her my death glare.

"I'm sorry we didn't have time to introduce everyone on the boat." Sam told us. I raised my eyebrows. He had just captured us and now he was apologizing for not saying who everyone was? He didn't even know what our names were.

"My name's Astrid," said the girl with blond hair. "This is Dahra, the official doctor of the FAYZ and this is Brianna…"

"But you can call me the Breeze" Brianna told us.

"My name's Percy and this is Annabeth," I told them. I could feel Annabeth glaring at me but they had told us their names so I think they deserved to know our names. Anyway, we were tied up so they kind of had the upper hand.

There was one question on my mind though.

"What's the FAYZ?" asked Astrid before I could. Sam and Astrid looked at each other. Brianna looked at us strangely and Dahra looked at the sky.

"Where have you been for the past few months?" asked Brianna. "You're in this FAYZ. It stands for Fallout Alley Youth Zone. Some people came up with the name at the beginning of it. Well, I'm going to scout the area." She said to Sam. He nodded.

"Hopefully I'll run into Drake." She smiled. Then, before I could blink, Brianna had gone.

"Why are you the doctor around here? Aren't you too young?" Astrid asked. I looked at Dahra. She did seem too young and she her clothes looked too small for her, with lots of rips and holes in them. She didn't exactly look 100% clean either.

"Someone has to be the doctor around her. I mean, Lana can heal but she only does life and death, she lives the other side of the FAYZ and she can't help with diseases. Without all the adults around someone has to care for all the ill people around here."

I thought about what she said but it was all crazy. A girl who could heal people? That wasn't too surprising. I mean; I could heal myself with water. Maybe she was a daughter of Poseidon. Then again these people talked about powers like they were normal.

Then there was the comment about no adults. Where had all the adults gone? Had they all decided to kill all the adults here? I really hoped I wasn't tied up with a bunch of people who kill all the adults they know.


	4. Demi-gods?

**Astrid**

I could see the panic on Percy's face. Annabeth looked like she was concentrating on something like her life depended on it. I looked at Sam and for a moment our eyes locked. I could see the questions those eyes held. I had a few questions to ask them myself. I looked back at Percy and Annabeth. They obviously had no idea what the FAYZ was, which created more questions than answers. How could he not know what the FAYZ was? I would've thought that the FAYZ was the most important thing going on at the moment. It defied the laws of physics and had hundreds of kids inside.

I looked around. I knew Brianna would have seen him but now I always expected Drake to come up to me with that whip-hand, smiling as he whipped me again and again. It would be so slow to die like that. I shook my head. Drake was not anywhere near us. Anyway, we had guards watching out for him and Sam could kill him with his light beams.

I stopped thinking about Drake for a moment. We needed to have a meeting about Percy and Annabeth.

I looked at Sam but he wasn't standing up anymore. Instead, he was undoing the ropes around Percy's hands and legs.

"What are you doing?" I asked worriedly. I still didn't trust Percy that much and if they attacked us then at least one of us would be injured. I knew that Percy had powers, they were powerful too. I thought Percy might be a 5 bar. I looked at Annabeth. Even if she didn't have powers then she was clever. I could see her stormy eyes calculating everything we did, deciding how big a threat we posed to her. Percy may be the powerful one, but Annabeth scared me with her intelligence. Would she be able to outsmart us? I looked at Sam, he was still undoing the ropes.

"I'm taking off the ropes, Astrid. I think we can trust them." He told me. The ropes fell to the ground. Percy now had his hands free. I tensed up, waiting. I wasn't going to let my guard down. I looked at Percy. He looked at me. I could see pain in his eyes, even if they hadn't been in the FAYZ they still had been through something bad. I thought what it could be. Maybe it was abuse. I couldn't think of many other things. I doubt he had been in any wars. He was too young to join the army and his accent was American. There hadn't been any wars in America going on before the FAYZ. I hoped the reporters weren't keeping things away from us, like a major war.

Finally, Percy was untied. He stood up and I tensed. I stared at his face, waiting for him to indicate that he was going to use his powers but he kneeled almost straight away, this time in front of Annabeth. Percy started to untie her. Sam and I were just standing around, the feeling of awkwardness started to build.

Percy stood up and faced us, Annabeth doing the same a split second after him. I could see the questions in there eyes as well.

"Let's walk to our boat house." I suggested, "We can answer each other's questions on the way."

Everyone nodded and we started walking. Sam was slightly in front of everyone else, leading the way to the boat house we lived on.

**Annabeth**

I walked along next to Dahra and Percy. I had so many questions buzzing around inside my head, I didn't know where to start. I glanced at Percy and I saw him twirling Riptide around in its pen form. I glanced at the boy, Sam. I wondered what was going on around here. No adults, people with powers and children who looked like they just fought a war. They might be Demi-gods but something was… off about them. I'd never heard of a Demi-god being able to go faster than you could see. I couldn't just ask though. If they weren't Demi-gods, then I would be involving three mortals. If they were Demi-gods but didn't know it yet, then when I explain it to them a lot of monsters would come and attack us. Of course, there was a small chance that they knew they were Demi-gods, but then why didn't they have any Celestial bronze weapons?

I looked at Percy and saw him about to ask a question.

"What are you?" he asked Sam, Astrid and Dahra. I mentally face palmed. Percy could be a real Seaweed Brain sometimes. They would probably think we were nuts. I looked at Sam, I might as well see what he said.

"I'm mutant." Sam replied, "Dahra and Astrid are normal." I stared at him now. What was a mutant? I mean, I know it is something which has mutated genes but what was mutated about Sam? I hadn't noticed anything strange about him. Anyway, who says that as an answer? I would understand if he said human or American or something like that but who just says '_I'm mutated, but it's only me. My friends are normal, with normal genes_.'

"What's a mutant?" asked Percy. I mentally cursed. If Sam had some sort of freakishly big toe or something I didn't want him to have to explain it to Percy. I know I wouldn't want to explain it to some random person.

"Someone with powers." Sam told us. I looked at Percy. Maybe they were Demi-gods but I really doubted they knew it yet. I had an idea. I could ask the classic question.

"Who are your parents?" Sam looked at me like I was a tiny bit crazy while Percy's eyes widened in realization. I could feel Astrid and Dahra staring at me too but it was better than '_Hey you could be a Demi-god. Is one of your parents a Greek or Roman god by any chance?'_

Sam answered me anyway, "My mum is called Connie Temple and my dad was called Taegan Smith." I noticed how Sam used was instead of is. Maybe his dad was a god.

"What happened to your dad?" I asked. He could have just "disappeared" like Percy's father or maybe his mum told him his father was dead.

He hesitated for a moment before replying, "A meteor hit the power plant a while ago, my dad was the only person who died because of it." I raised my eyebrows. That was a bit strange. But really, what were the chances of being killed by a meteor? I carried on walking, thinking of a way to see if he really died that way without being to crazy.


	5. Explainations

**Dahra**

As I was walking with everyone I glanced over at Percy and Annabeth. They were asking strange questions. I mean, who cares who Sam's parents are? It's not like they're here now. I sighed. I would be great if all the parents came back. No more looking at awful diseases, things worse than what they write in the medical books. No more listening to kids screaming in pain while I have to sit there, unable to spare any pain medicine. No more starving kids. Then I thought about what they would think of us. Monsters. I would too if I knew the truth. I wouldn't say everyone was a monster but we had to become monsters, in a way, to survive.

I shook my head. It didn't matter what the adults thought of us if we never got out. I followed Sam onto their house boat. Percy looked at each of us in turn.

"So…" he said, "Can you explain it all from the beginning because I have no clue what's going on." I looked at Sam and Astrid, I knew they didn't want to explain the whole FAYZ again, all the deaths, wars, people trying to kill us. I took a deep breath and started to speak.

"It all began before the FAYZ." Percy and Annabeth looked at me with surprise, they had obviously thought Sam or Astrid would tell the story. "Some kids began to develop powers, but they kept them hidden from everyone else. A few kids formed gangs to develop their powers and used them to be in charge of other kids. The adults didn't know anything, except for the government, who were experimenting on some of the kids in a government base. Then one day, in the middle of the school day, all the people over fifteen disappeared. Poof." They looked at me. I looked at Sam.

"The kids in one school started to panic, there was no telephone or TV signals and all the teachers were gone. Some were trying to call the police or parents, while others were breaking into the snack machines and stealing sweets." Sam said. Percy smiled at the comment about stealing sweets, but his expression became serious again a split second later. "Meanwhile, some of the kids with powers took over the other school. The person in charge of everyone was Caine." Sam looked down, I knew Astrid was going to have to tell them about the fire.

I was right, Astrid started to speak. "We went to find our parents and my brother. A small girl set her house on fire and Sam went in to save the girl, there was a flash of light and he came out telling us she was dead." Astrid took a shaky breath. "We found Little Pete, which was the nickname everyone used for my brother, and discovered the barrier. Sam told us about his powers and Little Pete used his to try and strangle Sam, but Sam didn't die. We figured out that the FAYZ barrier lined up exactly with the red zone in the nuclear default grid."

"What does that mean?" asked Percy. I guess he didn't live near a nuclear power plant. I could see Annabeth had lots of questions as well. I could also tell she knew what we were talking about. Then her eyes opened in realization. I wondered what she was thinking.

**Percy**

I waited for an answer. I was looking at Astrid, I think she was the smartest one here, not including Annabeth.

"It means that the FAYZ barrier was created around the area that would have died in a nuclear accident." Astrid explained. "We also figured out that Little Pete, my autistic brother, created the barrier while the nuclear power plant was in meltdown. Lots of other things happened and then Sam and Caine fought. At this point they both knew they were twins and that when you turned fifteen then you would disappear, but nobody knew where you went. Sam and Caine both beat the 'poof' and survived there fifteenth birthday. At this point, some of the coyotes were attacking the day care centre while others attacked kids in another part of town. Sam won so Caine and Diana, his girlfriend left with the coyotes and Drake, who is this evil person with a whip hand."

"How did your brother create the barrier?" asked Annabeth. I looked at her. Then I looked at Astrid. How could an autistic kid create a barrier?

"He was very powerful." Astrid told us. "He didn't like the noise the power plant made when it was in meltdown, so he made it all go away." My eyes opened in surprise. If only I could make monsters go away whenever I didn't want to fight them. That would be so cool. Then I noticed something, Astrid said was, not is. What happened to her brother? I hoped he hadn't been hit by a meteor as well.

Apparently Annabeth noticed it too. "What happened to him?" she asked. I looked at Astrid but she was looking at the floor. I thought she might be about to cry. It must have been something really bad. I looked at Sam, I didn't think Astrid was going to answer this question. I saw him take a shaky breath.

"There were giant bugs. The only way to kill them that we figured out was to be eaten and then kill them from the inside. If they bit you then they would grow inside of you before eating their way out. We were losing, so I sent Jack, who was this person that was very with a computer to throw him to the bugs. I had hoped that at the very least he would make them all disappear, maybe even take the barrier down. Instead, Drake came for Little Pete and Astrid threw him to the bugs. My plan worked, they all disappeared, the bugs, I mean."

We were all silent for a moment. I felt sorry for them. It was bad enough having to live through two Great Prophecies as a Demi-god but this place seemed just as dangerous and they were all human. I know some of them had powers but still. Giant bugs who couldn't die? I was interested in their powers though. I knew that Sam was the only one in the room with powers and I really wanted to see them. I wondered what they would think of my powers, but I knew I shouldn't show them. I couldn't exactly explain why I was so powerful.

"Hey Sam, can I see your powers?" I asked. I could see he was uneasy about it.

"I'm not going to use the dangerous one," he told us. "but I'll show you some of it."

Then Sam held his palms up and a little ball of light appeared. Annabeth started to put her hand in it. The ball just hovered there, almost like a miniature sun.

"It's called a Sammy Sun" Dahra said. I smiled, it was the perfect name for the balls of light.


	6. Important Notice

Hello anyone who's reading this. I know I haven't updated for the past 2 days but I have been really busy and didn't have time to write anything. I have decided to update every Wednesday and Saturday starting on Wednesday. I just don't have the time to update daily. Please review and check every Wednesday and Saturday!

Bellismo


	7. Are You Gods?

**Sam**

I was starting to become uncomfortable with all the attention. I mean, I knew that everyone in the FAYZ looks to me for lots of things, but these people weren't in the FAYZ when everything happened.

I left the Sammy Sun in the air. Annabeth looked like she was very interested in it. She passed her hand through it, a puzzled look on her face and I smiled. Everyone had come to accept the impossible now, but she and Percy had disbelieving looks on their faces. My smile vanished when I realized I had to continue telling them about the FAYZ.

"Then the wall started to turn black, the FAYZ was going dark." I began to tell them, dread obvious in my voice. "People were panicking. No light meant fear, starvation and complete vulnerability. During the FAYZ, an evil thing called the Gaiaphage was thinking of ways to destroy the world. It had been using Little Pete to create monsters and at one point it nearly managed to make itself a new body using Lana. Drake, who was working for the Gaiaphage, managed to kidnap Diana, who was pregnant with Caine's baby. Diana had told me she knew it was a strong mutant. Very strong. She gave birth inside the mineshaft the Gaiaphage lived in, but she had only been pregnant four months. Brianna, who you saw earlier, picked up the baby and was about to run when the Gaiaphage tricked her into putting the baby on it. It possessed the baby and left with Drake, Dianna and Penny, who is a crazy mutant who can make you hallucinate."

I looked at them. Percy had a pitying look in his eyes, almost like he knew what it was like but didn't want anyone else to have to go through it. Annabeth had wide eyes. She looked like she was sorry for us, but more like she was amazed by what we had done. I looked down, I had finished explaining roughly what happened in the FAYZ, although it didn't feel right to not tell them of every hero who had died.

I sighed and I knew Astrid was looking at me with worry. Then my eyes slid up to meet Percy's. There was one more question I had to ask.

"What have you been through that was so bad?" I asked. I hoped I was reading the look in his eyes right or it would be very awkward.

Percy seemed to freeze for a split second, like he had done something bad and needed to hide it. His mouth hung open for a few seconds as he mumbled sounds like"Um…" and "Uh…".

Annabeth must have decided that Percy was never going to be able to answer this question with words as she thought for a moment before answering, "Percy's dad used to be in the army. He brought Percy and his mum with him once to the government base. The enemy attacked the base, killing Percy's father."

I looked at her for a moment. I knew she was lying and I was pretty sure Astrid did too. I decided that we would need Toto just to make sure. I didn't want to go starting fights because someone _might_ be lying. Apparently, Astrid had the same idea.

"Dahra, please could you go get Toto?" Astrid asked Dahra with a look at Percy and Annabeth. I knew that Dahra would know that we both thought they lied to us.

**Annabeth**

I was tapping my leg nervously. I could tell that they didn't believe me. I had a million questions about the Gaiaphage, but I needed to focus on other things first. I looked Astrid in the eye and cal my asked, "What is Toto?"

She looked at me, probably thinking whether she should tell me or not. I gave her a look that said _you can trust me, I'm innocent!._ I must have overdone it because her eyes narrowed. I raised an eyebrow, I wanted, scratch that, I needed the answer to that question. I saw her exchange a look with Sam. They must have known each other really well because they had a silent conversation, like Percy and I did sometimes. I tried to decipher the looks in their eyes but after a minute Astrid looked at me again and I knew she was going to answer.

She looked at me as she spoke, "Toto is a mutant. He has the power to tell truths from lies, almost like a walking lie detector."

My face paled and so did Percy's. How would we escape this one? I had to tell the truth but how could I avoid telling them about the gods? If they asked me if Percy's dad was dead and I said no, then I knew the next question I would ask would be _Why were you lying? _ I could just refuse to answer, but they had mutants and weapons. I didn't want to try our chances against Sam's killer light.

For once, I honestly had no idea what to do. I smiled a bit, it was ironic. The daughter of Athena, who had been through Tartarus itself, didn't have a plan. I was always supposed to have a plan! I was the daughter of the goddess of battle strategies! I shook my head slightly, it didn't matter about the irony of the situation. I just needed to come up with a strategy so we could avoid telling them the truth.

I continued to try to think of plans desperately. A few minutes later, Dahra came in again with a small boy. He looked around 11 or 12 years old with black, almost spiky looking hair. He looked a bit crazy, mumbling to himself. I tried listening harder and could make out one word, _spidey. _I tried and failed to suppress a shudder. At least I knew his power wasn't summoning spiders. I looked into Percy's sea green eyes and sighed. Percy always made me feel better. I smiled a tiny bit, then his eyes caught mine and he grinned at me. For a moment it didn't matter that we could only tell the truth, it was just Percy and I, together.

"So…" Sam interrupted. He sounded awkward, I blushed. "Was your father actually in the army?"

Percy looked down. I sighed and he looked at me again. I knew that look in his eyes, he was going to have to tell them. "No." He told them. We all looked at Toto.

"He's telling the truth, Spidey." I wondered why Toto was so obsessed with spiders. Sam nodded slightly, like Percy had confirmed what he already knew. I wouldn't be surprised if he had known we were lying. It hadn't been my best lie, I admit. Sam glanced at Astrid, he probably thought she would know the best questions to ask us.

"Who is your father?" she asked. I cringed inside and I saw Percy flinch. If he lied now then we would lose all their trust. He had to tell the truth as he knew it.

Percy took a shaky breath. "He's Poseidon." Astrid's eyes widened. Sam had a puzzled look on his face before looking to Toto.

Toto looked at us, then stared at the space next to him. "He believes it's the truth." He told the empty air. Astrid stared at Percy.

"What is your father?" She asked. Percy looked down before answering them.

"He's the Greek god of the sea."


	8. Dealing With The Problems

**Astrid**

I didn't know what to say for a moment. This guy had a god for a father? Maybe he was a god. I looked down. I hoped he wasn't a god or we had tied up and interrogated a god. I looked at Toto, maybe he was just messing with us. I knew he wasn't though. He had a serious look in his eyes.

Toto looked at the empty space beside him. He did that a lot. We had rescued him from the government base where his only company was a big Spider-Man toy. Sam burned it to ashes, so now Toto talks to Spider-Man's ghost. It wasn't real, of course, but you could tell when he addressed the empty air and talked to 'Spidey', his nickname for the toy.

"He's telling the truth." Toto stated. I shuffled uneasily. Maybe Annabeth was a child of the gods too. I looked at Annabeth and she stared into my eyes. I knew she was going to tell us.

"My mother is Athena, Greek goddess of battle strategies." She said, not once looking away from my eyes. I adverted my eyes from her gaze. It wasn't accusing or kind, but calculating, like she was trying to find a way out of this. I thought about all the Greek mythology I knew. It wasn't much, only a few of the main gods, goddesses and heroes. I couldn't remember Athena having any children, but I wasn't sure. Anyway, how reliable were the myths?

"Are you gods?" I blurted out, my eyes looking at Percy. To my surprise, he started laughing. I looked at Annabeth but she was looking at Percy. She slapped him over the head.

"Stop acting like a Seaweed brain." She told him. She sounded annoyed, more like she had to deal with this every day. I relaxed a bit. Surely gods would act more, well, god-like. Annabeth gave me an apologetic look. Percy was red in the face, I wasn't sure whether it was from embarrassment from being told off by Annabeth or because he was trying not to laugh.

"We're only half god. One of our parents is a mortal, while the other is a god. Please don't tell anyone, we're not supposed to tell anyone anyway." She looked nervous, I could see her tapping her hand against her leg again and again. I looked at Toto. He had been silent for a while but I wanted him to tell Percy and Annabeth that we were telling the truth.

"We promise to not tell anyone else." I told them. I smiled slightly at Annabeth and she relaxed a bit.

"They're telling the truth." Toto confirmed. I wondered what we were going to do now. How would we keep their secret? Everyone would want to know where they came from. We were going to have to change their clothes as well, they were too clean and fitted them too well. I started thinking of an explanation.

We could say they were camping in the forest when the FAYZ began. They had been living on their own when Annabeth decided to look for more kids, if there were any. They found out that Percy had powers, I was going to have to ask him about that. I didn't know if Annabeth had any powers from her mother. From what I knew, she was just smart and good with a dagger. I hoped we could keep their secret.

**Percy**

I stood up and started to pace around. My ADHD was starting to get to me. It didn't help that I was nervous as well. I had dealt with Kronos, Gaea and been through Tartarus but I had never had to explain things to a normal mortal. They did have powers and could see through the Mist but they were mortals. I hoped they could keep our secret. It would be really bad if some random kid was going around screaming about gods and titans. I sighed. I felt really guilty about involving them in my life. Nobody deserved it, but I guess they didn't deserve to be in the FAYZ either.

I looked at Annabeth. She was better at controlling her ADHD. I saw her tapping her foot, her eyes in deep concentration. I knew she was thinking of a cover story, we did need one. I also knew she wouldn't be able to come up with a possible one without Astrid's help. She was thinking hard as well. I looked at Dahra and then at Sam. Dahra was shuffling impatiently while Sam was just staring at the floor, waiting.

"So…" Dahra broke the silence. Everyone looked at her, even Astrid and Annabeth. "What's the cover story? I need to go back to all the injured people."

I stopped pacing and looked between Annabeth and Astrid. If Astrid came up with a cover story, then I hoped Annabeth wouldn't let her pride get in the way.

Astrid started to speak, "I was thinking that we could say you were camping when the FAYZ started and decided to find out if someone else was alive a few days ago. We could say that you saw the people here and managed to talk to Sam. We will have to change your clothes though. They're too clean." Astrid looked at everyone in turn, her gaze lingering on Annabeth. I could see how much Annabeth wanted to come up with her own, better, cover story but I sent her a look. We had to be friends with this people unless we wanted some very powerful enemies in an unfamiliar place. She looked at me and nodded her head. I relaxed almost immediately.

"Okay, We'll try that cover story." She told Astrid. I smiled at her. Astrid looked at Sam.

"Anyway," She told us. "We have bigger problems here. The FAYZ barrier became clear a couple of days ago. All the kids are just standing around, writing signs for the news channels or parents. We need to get them working again or we're all going to starve."

I looked at Annabeth. That was a big problem. They probably wouldn't notice two more people in the FAYZ. Annabeth started thinking again, probably about how she could make everyone work.

Sam looked at Toto and Dahra. "Why don't you go get Edilio and Dekka?" He asked them. I tried to stay relaxed but I was becoming more nervous every second. I wondered who Edilio and Dekka were. I looked at Sam, then at Astrid. I hoped they didn't lie to us about keeping the gods a secret. I started to pace again. Every fibre in my body was screaming at me to leave, I could easily do it. I barely knew these people and already I was trusting them with my life! I pushed those thoughts aside. I could trust Sam and Astrid. I had trusted people who had done a lot worse to me, like Luke.

"Who are they?" Annabeth asked, after Dahra and Toto left. She sounded worried. She was probably starting to doubt them a bit as well.

"Edilio is the leader of the army and Dekka is a mutant with the power to cancel gravity." Sam looked at us. I guess we were pretty easy to read because he decided to tell us more. "Don't worry, I won't tell them about your parents."

He walked outside for a minute before coming back in with two more people.


	9. Sam Tries To Lie

**Edilio**

I followed Sam into the houseboat. I looked over at Dekka, but she was lost in thought. I knew she must be thinking of some of the things people have been saying. The Endgame. That's what people keep calling it. The scary thing is, it might actually come true. If nobody worked then we would eventually run out of food. We couldn't expect Quinn and his fishermen to provide for everyone while most of the population was doing nothing at the barrier. This Endgame was stupid. We had survived everything so far and then everything falls apart when we might be nearly done.

Of course, there is more than one meaning to the Endgame. I just hoped we could survive it.

I we went through the door I looked at everyone. There was Astrid and two more people.

One of them was a tall boy with black, wavy hair and sea-green eyes. He was pacing nervously but he stopped abruptly when he saw Dekka and I. I could feel him staring at me, assessing how much of a threat I was. He was taller than me and he stood like a leader, like Sam does whenever he's telling people what to do when we're under attack. I stared straight back at him. I wasn't going to be intimidated by him, I didn't know who he was but showing fear is a weakness. Anyway, I've seen things much scarier than him.

My gaze shifted to the girl. She was shorter than the boy with blond hair and grey, stormy eyes. She was looking at Dekka and I, her eyes showing her intelligence as she decided how much of a threat we were. I saaw her look at me gun, her eyes widening a bit as her hand went to a knife strapped around her waist. She was wearing clean clothes and actually looked well fed. I couldn't hide my surprise as I felt my eyes widen slightly. I looked back at the boy and realized he was the same, clean and well fed. The girl was also dripping, like she had been swimming recently.

I looked over at Sam. I knew that he knew the answers. Sam looked at me.

"They were camping in the forest when the FAYZ started and… umm… they decided to find out if there were more people the other day, so they umm… they walked through the forest and eventually ended up here." Sam looked away guiltily. I narrowed my eyes. I could tell Sam was lying, it was obvious. What I was wondering was why. Why wasn't he telling me the truth? Was he being blackmailed by them? I dismissed the idea immediately. Sam would kill them before they could threaten him. I glanced at Dekka as she looked questionably at Sam. She was probably wondering the same thing.

I looked at the boy and girl but they avoided my gaze. They were definitely involved in this somehow. I mean, Sam was lying about them for some reason. I looked at them again, maybe they were someone I knew. I couldn't remember anyone like them though and I knew I would've remembered them.

It looked like Dekka had had enough. "Sam, Why the hell are you lying to us and who are they?"

**Dekka**

I waited for somebody to answer me. I couldn't believe Sam would lie to us about something so important. I could tell that this was important. I wondered if Sam didn't trust me enough with this. I had helped him so much though. Why didn't he trust me?

"I'm Percy and this is Annabeth." They boy told me. I swerved my gaze to him. Percy was involved in this, so he must know why Sam was lying to us. Percy glanced at Annabeth, but she was t busy glaring at Sam, probably because he is so bad at lying to us. I looked over at Astrid who had been silent the whole time. She looked at me and I knew she wanted to tell me but then her gaze slid to Percy and Annabeth and she shook her head.

I wasn't going to give that easily though. "Sam, Why were you lying?" Sam looked at his feet and then at Annabeth. She stood up, like she was preparing for a speech.

"He was doing it to protect our secret." She told us. "Do you swear not to tell anyone about it, ever?" I looked at her. I rolled my eyes. She was probably going to say how she had eaten her pet cat or something stupid like that. Then I glanced at Sam. Their secret was important if he had lied to us about it. I nodded my head.

"I swear not to tell anyone about your secret. Ever." I told them, Edilio repeating it after me. Annabeth relaxed slightly but she still looked as if she was about to fight Drake. Percy opened his mouth and started to explain.

**(AN: I don't think you want to listen to the explanation again so I'm going to skip it.)**

After they explained about the gods and Demi-gods and monsters and, well, everything, I was amazed. They had been through so much before they even fell into the FAYZ. I felt a little sorry for them. I hoped they didn't die, because I knew people would. Gaia was going to try and kill us all. The Endgame. I looked at Astrid. No matter how much I wanted to learn about Demi-gods we had to figure out how to get people working again.

Edilio apparently had the same idea. He sat on a deck chair and started to speak. "Word from Perdido Beach is that Caine is trying to get Orc to force people away from the barrier and back to work."

"What's special about Orc?" asked Annabeth. I looked at her. It wasn't their fault for not being here the whole FAYZ but it meant we would have to explain. A lot.

"Orc is a person who nearly died from the coyotes. He developed an ability to change injured flesh into gravel. It makes him strong and a bit scary." I explained to them.

"Anyway," Sam continued the conversation. "did it work?"

I shook my head. Orc had never like his power and I didn't blame him. The adults would think he was a monster. His fears were real and 100% rational. "He refuses to go anywhere close to the barrier."

Sam nodded in understanding. "Is that because he's mostly gravel?" asked Percy. I nodded. I already knew this was going to be a long meeting.


	10. This Is The Plan

**Sam**

I looked back at Edilio. Maybe there was another way to stop people standing at the barrier all day. Albert would probably have come up with something by now. I wanted to be angry with him, he had abandoned us and gone to that island. I sighed, it didn't matter how selfish Albert was if he could stop everyone from starving to death.

Dekka started to speak, "There's almost no produce in Perdido Beach except Quinn. Without him, they'd probably be starving already."

Dekka looked annoyed. She was probably thinking about Albert as well. We did need him, we just didn't need a selfish worm like him. We had to have someone who thought about what people wanted though, somebody who could persuade people to do what they ask. Someone who could make people work again, no matter how many family members wanted to see them.

Edilio, on the other hand, was thinking hard.

"We're vulnerable. Who knows where Diana and Gaia are, or even what power Gaia has. We don't know anything- what they want, their weaknesses, strengths. We're most vulnerable down by the barrier. At least a hundred kids are down there right now, writing messages. It isn't just about not doing any work, it's about them being in the open with no protection."

"Wait, who is Gaia?" asked Percy. This meeting was going to take much longer if we had to keep explaining things to Percy and Annabeth. I didn't want to not include them though, they could help with these problems in the future. Anyway, if they didn't know who everyone was then they would stand out even more.

"Gaia is Diana's baby." explained Astrid. She turned to Edilio. "You're right. They're a target there."

"A big one." Dekka agreed. I shuffled uncomfortably. They were a target. I knew that. I also knew if I tried anything then Caine would become angry. Very angry. I didn't wan to start another war. Especially not now when Gaia is out there with Drake.

"I know you want to help, I do too. The thing is, down there is Caine's territory." I told everyone.

"Guys," Percy started speaking again. He came a little closer, almost like he was afraid he was interrupting. "If this whole barrier problem is this big, I think we need a plan."

I looked at Edilio. "What should we do?"

I don't know when, but at some point Edilio became my equal instead of my sidekick. Edilio was in charge except in battle and I was fine with it. I always hated having to lead everyone alone in the beginning. I could rely on Edilio, he was a good man. It didnt feel like everyone depended on me now. I can just lie in bed with Astrid, without having toworry about managing everything. My gaze slid to her. I wish I could just be alone with her now. I forced myself to look back at Edilio.

"We need to prepare for the worst. If we put the Cup-a-Noodles and Nutella on a boat in the middle of the lake, maybe with some vegetables, then we can tell people they don't get any food unless they work again." Everyone nodded.

"Sounds like a plan." I told him, while smiling.

**Annabeth**

I listened in as everybody talked. I wanted to come up with a plan, but I didn't know these people. I didn't know what they would work for. Also, I didn't want to be the one who forced people away from their families. I knew what it was like, being alone.

I looked over at Percy, wondering what we had gotten ourselves into now. The Fates must hate us. Is it too much to ask for one moment when the world might not end? One moment when hundreds of people are very likely going to die?

In front of me, the conversation continued. "We need simple information right now. What are those three going to do? What can Gaia do? Until we know some more answers, we're blind."

Edilio was good at making plans. It was obvious why Sam relied on him so much. When he talked, everyone listened. It was surprising how similar he, Percy and Sam actually are. They were all leaders that had been through so much and they all just wanted peace.

"I think I should talk to Caine. We need to start working together." He announced. I knew Percy would want to come. Sam probably would too.

"Why don't you, Sam, Percy and I all go?" I asked Edilio. I was pretty sure that we would be able to move everyone away from the barrier if their were lots of us. Anyway, I knew the boys didn't want to just stay here while Edilio went alone and if they went, they I was going too.

"If Sam went down there trying to make people work then it would piss Caine off. We don't have time for another fight between you. Anyway, if one of you were injured, then we would be even more vulnerable. Also... I was wondering... I mean, you don't have to..."

Sam didn't look disappointed at all. He smiled at Edilio warmly. "If you want me to do something just tell me."

I wondered what Edilio would ask Sam to do. It might be to keep everything in order at the lake, but I doubted that. I knew from the tone of Edilio's voice that it was something dangerous. Probably deadly. I also knew Percy would probably try to go with him. I wondered what I would be doing.

I would probably go with Edilio to explain our story to Caine. Hopefully if I did that he would believe the cover story, but I doubted it. I didn't think he was going to be stupid enough to believe it. If that happened then I was going to have to tell another person about the gods so he wouldn't be angry about being lied to.

I might also stay with Astrid and do... whatever Astrid was going to do.

"I need you to look for Gaia, Drake and Diana. Brianna is zooming around randomly, she might miss something. I need you to look in places like the mine shaft, National Guard base, Stefano Rey and the power plant in case she's waiting somewhere to become stronger. There's only one problem."

"What?" Sam asked Edilio.

"I need to take Dekka. You should take Percy but even then you may need somebody else." Edilio looked down, like he had just condemned Sam to death. I think everyone in the room knew what he meant. I just hoped Caine wasn't too angry.

I don't know when, but at some point in the conversation I had decided to stay with Astrid. I could help most at the lake.

"How long?" I asked.

Edilio answered me. "One hour."


	11. Goodbyes

**AN: Finally, Double Digits! Thank you for reviewing and reading this story. **

**Sam**

After we decided to leave the lake, Astrid and I went to the cabin. Edilio and Dekka had taken Annabeth and Percy on a tour of the lake. I felt nervous about Caine. He might go crazy when he finds out there are some people even more powerful than him. I didn't know how he would react. I hoped he wouldn't see them as a threat and kill them on the spot. We would probably have to tell him their secret. I knew I could lie easier to Caine than to my friends but he's clever. He might not buy the lie, no matter how well we tell it. If he found out Annabeth and Percy were half god, they could die. Well, Percy could anyway, Annabeth wouldn't be there.

Even with the journey ahead of me, I was happy. I might be going insane, but with Astrid in my arms, it felt like nothing could ever go wrong. We would be together. We would stay alive. I kissed her gently. She put her hands around my neck and refused to let me go. The kissed deepened. I felt like I was flying. Hopefully, we would kiss again. Finally, after what felt like hours, we broke apart.

"You don't need to do this." She told me, her head leaning on my shoulder.

"Who else would do it? I need to go." I replied. I could feel her tighten her grip on me. I had to go. For everyone. No matter how much I wanted to stay here, in Astrid's arms. I had to go.

She tilted her head and looked me straight in the eyes. As she spoke I could feel her breath, soft and warm. "You've done enough. More than enough. They can manage without you."

I felt her heart beating rapidly. I wanted to give in so much. I wanted to stay with Astrid. I sighed, if I did that then even more people would die because of Gaia.

"It's the endgame. Gaia ran off and I doubt it was because she was weak. We need to strike first. You know that as well as I do." Astrid looked at me, a defeated look in her eyes. She knew I had to go. I was relieved and disappointed at the same time. I wanted her to have an argument, a reason I should stay. If she had had one, I knew I would've stayed. I wanted to stay instead of trying to defeat Gaia, who was more likely to kill me if Drake didn't. I also knew that if I didn't go, Gaia would kill everyone.

"I love you." I whispered in her ear.

A silent tear streaked down her cheek. I brushed it away gently.

"I love you too." She stepped away from me. She was angry, but I knew it wasn't towards me. She was angry that I had to go. Astrid started to whisper again, "First, isolate her. Take out Drake and if you have to, Diana. Try to do it by water, let Percy protect you."

My body froze. I wasn't sure if I could take out Diana. She was manipulative, but she had been my friend. The disbelief must have been clear on my face because Astrid grabbed it and told me, "Listen, Sam. Promise me you'll do anything you can to survive. I'm not losing you because you played fair. You're not going to be killed. You aren't doomed to die. Do you understand? We can walk out together, Sam. You and me."

She let go and stared at me. "I promise." I agreed. The silence stretched on afterwards. We didn't know what to say.

**Percy**

The hour passed quickly. We were told who lived in each boat and Dekka explained the FAYZ in more detail. I couldn't concentrate on anything, though. I looked at the sky, wondering if we were ever going to escape alive. I glanced at Annabeth. She was listening intently to everything Dekka was saying. I hoped we could stop Gaia. There was one thing that I found strange. Gaia and Gaea sounded so similar, and I knew that Gaea could also be called Gaia. It was probably nothing, but I was wondering if Gaia had any connection to Gaea, or if the Gaiaphage did.

Edilio had explained how Gaiaphage literally meant "World Eater". I've always wanted to try and kill something called World Eater- notice my sarcasm here. I wondered if the gods knew that Gaia existed. Maybe that's why my dad sent me the teleportation present. So I could help kill here.

Before I knew it, an hour had passed. Edilio was getting into the driver's seat. Annabeth came up to me.

"Good Luck Seaweed Brain." She smiled playfully. I kissed her quickly. She smiled at me when we broke apart. If there was one thing I could do, it was protect Annabeth from Gaia. I smiled at her.

"See you soon." I told her, walking towards the truck. I hoped this wasn't goodbye, but even if it was, it was a pretty good goodbye. I saw Sam waving at Astrid, his clothes a bit out of place and I smiled even more. Somebody had been busy. I looked back at Annabeth and silently thanked her for not crying. I wasn't sure I could leave a crying Annabeth. _I will be back _I thought as I waved at her. At that moment, my body decided to have an unplanned conversation with the ground.

My face turned bright red as I stood up again, looking for the culprit. I found it quickly, a rock the size of my hand. I kicked it and it spun about a meter away. I could see Annabeth laughing and I knew that everyone else would probably be too. I turned towards the car and pulled myself into the back.

"What took you so long?" asked Edilio, obviously trying not to laugh. Sam wasn't able to, though. He was laughing hard, clutching his sides. Toto just looked puzzled.

"Let's just go." I told him. My face probably becoming even more red as I was speaking. I looked over at Toto, who had fallen asleep. I whispered to Sam, "Anyway, I was wondering what you did for an hour, Sam?"

He went a dark shade of red and for a moment it looked like he was eating a very hot chili. This made Edilio laugh. After a couple of seconds, Sam and I joined in. For the rest of the car journey we told jokes and riddles, brightening the mood and making everyone in the car think, _We might be alright after all._


	12. The Surprise

**AN: I'm sorry I keep writing in the same POVs over and over again. The problem is, they're where everything interesting is happening. Also, I'm not writing in anyone else's POV except the ones in previous chapters. Thanks again for all the reviews and enjoy the story!**

**Edilio**

I stepped out of the car slowly. We really needed Caine to not kill us on sight. Hopefully he wasn't angry. I kept my eyes on Caine as Sam stepped out, waiting for his reaction. Caine grinned for a split-second before masking his emotions again. I hoped he wasn't going to kill Sam. Toto and Percy came out next. Caine's eyes looked at Percy with curiosity. He looked at Toto in understanding.

I started to walk towards Caine slowly. Somebody else was with him. I think his name was Virtue. As I walked towards Caine, Percy, Sam and Toto followed. Caine was starting to grin evilly again so I stepped in before he threw his twin into a wall.

"We're not here to fight." I stated. Caine frowned slightly while Virtue looked relieved. Then they both looked at Toto as he spoke.

"It's true." Who knew two words could mean so much? Caine looked a bit unhappy that we hadn't come to challenge him. I looked at Sam in the corner of my eye, I still didn't trust Caine. Sam was staring at Caine, shuffling nervously.

Finally, Caine sighed and told us, "Why are you here Sam? Did you come to surf? Who's that?" He pointed at Percy briefly before turning towards Virtue. "Choo, go find some chairs for us."

I was wondering who he was talking about until Virtue left. Then I remembered that he liked everybody calling him Choo instead. I looked at Sam. I didn't think Caine was going to kill us today unless we made him mad. Sam's eyes narrowed slightly so I sent him a look. We couldn't make Caine angry, not when we had come here to ask for his help.

"Don't look at me, ask Edilio." Sam looked over at me. I was a tiny bit relieved that Caine wasn't going to have more chances to get on Sam's nerves. Then Virtue came back with the chairs.

They were small and wooden, like something you might find in a dining room. Caine went over and sat on the slightly larger one, while Sam, Percy and I took the last three. Toto was left to sit on the floor but he didn't seem to mind. He was staring at the space to his left, talking to his dead spider-man toy. They were sat around a large desk, Caine on one side and us on the other. Virtue came and pulled up a chair next to Caine.

Caine put his feet up, "I would give you cookies and milk, but we're all out of them."

Toto looked up and decided that statement needed to be verified. "It's true, he has no cookies or milk."

I decided to get straight to the point. It was stupid for us all to just sit here, while Caine keeps spouting off sarcastic comments. "We need to start the food production up again. We need to deal with everyone outside the FAYZ. We need rules, an organization."

"That's pure genius Edilio. Choo, make a note of that: we need people to work. Anyway, you still haven't answered my first question." He glared at Percy. "Who are you?"

**Astrid**

I was worried about Sam. Dekka and I were telling Annabeth about Caine. The more we talked, the more nervous she looked. We told her about the FAYZ in detail, Dekka explaining all the parts I couldn't bring myself to talk about. We talked about how much we wanted to leave, about our life before and what we would do when we left. Annabeth told us about her life,the fight with the titans and Gaea and how Percy finally asked her out. She told us about how she had always wanted to be an architect and how happy she was designing Olympus. We talked fro what seemed like hours.

Suddenly, Brianna walked onto the boat. She was carrying a large bag, which was slung over her shoulder carelessly. She was smiling happily as she sauntered casually up to us. As I looked at Brianna, our conversation stopped. Annabeth and Dekka both turned towards her. My eyes narrowed slightly, Brianna was supposed to be looking for Drake. I wondered why she was here unless… I looked at the bag. I wondered what was in it, but I had a pretty good idea.

"Where's Sam?" Was the first thing she asked me. I glanced at the bag, which was now hanging by her side. Dekka was looking at the bag as well. Annabeth had a puzzled look on her face as she looked at the bag, probably wondering why Dekka and I were so interested in it. After a couple of seconds, Dekka looked back up at Brianna.

"He's out with Edilio." I noticed how she didn't mention Percy, probably because Brianna would ask even more questions that would be harder to answer. Annabeth looked at Brianna. She looked disappointed. I realized she had wanted to impress Sam with whatever was in that bag. I was about to ask her when Annabeth decided to.

"What's in the bag?" She asked Brianna. Brianna's face lit up again. She walked up even closer to us.

"Just a little something I picked up." Her smile widened. She walked over to the table we were sat round. She looked at me for a split-second before emptying the bag. A couple of lizards and broken eggs fell out. She shook the bag quickly before a head fell out. Drake's head.

"Oh my gods!" Annabeth screamed, quickly backing away from the head on the table. I would like to say I stayed calm but I didn't. I screamed loudly before backing away quicker than Annabeth.

"Jesus!" Yelled Dahra. She was retreating quickly as well. I looked back at Brianna, who was still smiling smugly.

"I know." She said, her head held high.

"Oh, that's…" I told her, approaching the head slowly. Drake's head looked like it had been cut in half and was in the process of joining together again. They must have been tossed a lot, though. They were joining wrong, so the halves were facing in opposite directions. The neck and spine were sticking up and down. His mouth was next to his hair. Parts of lizard were sticking out. They weren't dead, though. No… The lizards were flicking their tails in annoyance. Egg was smeared across one of his eyes and a part of the hair next to it.

Annabeth was coming closer too. It looked like Drake was trying to talk. One of the lizard parts was flicking its tail back and forth, almost like it was his new whip. I put my hand over my mouth. Dekka came up to it, her mouth open wide and her brows furrowed. Brianna beamed like she had just acquired a new power.

"What is that?" asked Annabeth.

"It's Drake" Dekka whispered to her. Annabeth's eyes widened. Brianna was completely oblivious.

"Ta-da!"


	13. Messages

**AN: Hello Everyone! A special thanks to Nobody has no body and Tala White 15 for your great ****reviews!**

**Also- I won't be able to update for a few weeks as I am on holiday. I will update ASAP though.**

**Percy**

Caine was glaring at me. I stared right back at him, he didn't scare me. His eyes were cold, unforgiving. I knew I didn't want him as my friend but it would be even worse if we were enemies. He was powerful, though. I could tell by the way he talked, like nobody ever questioned him. I could see Sam in the corner of my eye. He was watching Caine, waiting for him to do something. We could have probably stayed like that all day, if Edilio wasn't there.

"This is Percy. He was camping in the woods when the FAYZ started and recently found his way to the lake." Caine's eyes narrowed at Edilio's answer. It was obvious he didn't believe it. I prayed to the gods that he would let it slide. Instead he continued to glare at me.

After a moment he decided to ask something else, the mistrust clear in his voice. "What powers does he have?"

Edilio paused for a moment. I felt slightly angry that Caine was acting like I wasn't even in the room. Edilio still hadn't answered, so I blurted out, "I can control water."

After I said it, I mentally cursed myself. Caine's eyes narrowed even further, he didn't seem to like that I could control water. Caine leant back and stopped glaring at me.

"So, where have you really been since the start of the FAYZ?" he asked me. I could see Sam stiffen beside me. I tried to act calm, I didn't trust him enough to tell him just how powerful I was. Also, I had a feeling that he wouldn't like someone being more powerful than him.

"Edilio told you, I was camping in the woods." Caine stood up quickly, Sam and I following quickly. Virtue was looking around nervously. At that point, Toto decided to say something.

"He's lying." He stated, then as an afterthought he mumbled, "Spidey."

"Why don't we just discuss this some more?" Edilio tried to calm Caine down uselessly. It was too late though. Caine held his hand up before Sam and I slammed into the wall behind us. Caine looked murderous. Virtue scrambled backwards, trying to stay out of the way so Caine wouldn't turn on him. Edilio was standing calmly, but he was becoming more nervous every second. It was obvious to anybody that this wasn't going like we planned.

"Stop lying to me!" Caine yelled at us. Sam was trying to lift his hands but he couldn't. I glared at Caine, feeling a pull in my gut. The ground started to shake, starting out relatively harmless before becoming so violent Edilio could barely stand up. I tried to stop it, the roof could fall down on top of us at any moment. The tug came again, stronger this time. Caine lost concentration on holding as up as the roof started to crumble. I fell and collapsed on the ground, a piece of the roof connecting with my head quickly afterwards.

Everything went black.

**Dahra**

I needed a break from the hospital. I don't know why, but I wanted to speak to the outside world. I didn't want to speak to my family or friends though, I wanted to go and answer some random person's questions. The main crowd was too busy for me, I didn't like it. I looked around to see if anybody was somewhere quieter, somewhere I could speak to one person at a time. My gaze fell on a woman. She was standing on the top of a hill holding a sign up. I read it and immediately went to go speak to her. I read it again as I was climbing. It felt impossible that this woman could be the mother of the two people everyone knew about.

_I am Sam Temple and Caine Soren's mother._

I didn't have a pen. Even if I did, I didn't have any paper to write on. All I had was a stick that I had snapped off a tree. The ground at my feet was dirt, easy enough to write on. It was a slow process, taking a while to trace each word into the ground. There was one message I wanted to write before all others, even my name.

_Team Sam_ **(AN: _This is __Dahra, __This is Connie Temple)_**

The woman, called Connie Temple, started to write on her sign. After a minute she turned it round so I could see.

_What's your name?_

_Dahra_

She smiled at me and quickly wrote something else on the sign.

_Dahra Baidoo? I'm friends with your mom!_

I smiled back at her before writing my reply on the ground.

_She told me._

I had gone to see my mom the other day. I wiped the dirt again, waiting for her to finish writing. Connie now had a serious look on her face. I hoped she didn't ask me who died. There were so many. To my relief she didn't.

_I need to speak to Sam._

I started writing my reply to her. I didn't mention Percy, I didn't think he wanted any more attention yet. I wondered if Sam and Caine had started their search yet. They were going to soon if they hadn't already.

_Sam & Caine looking 4 Gaia._

Connie nodded and wrote another message.

_Can I trust you?_

I smiled back at her.

_People do._

_Things getting nasty out here._

My smile disappeared at that comment.

_Yeah_ I jerked my head slightly to the sea of children gathered at the bottom of the hill, writing to their family members and news station. We were going to have to stop it soon. Eventually we would run out of food and then… I dreaded to think what would happen then. I was so lost in thought that I almost didn't notice hat Connie had finished writing. Almost, but not quite.

_You need to plan. Who can I talk to about that?_

I thought for a moment.

_Edilio or Astrid._

_How can I get in touch with them?_

I thought some more. Edilio was probably too busy to do an interview, he needed to keep everything going.

_Edilio very busy._ I waited for her to finish reading that part before adding on, _Astrid. They call her Astrid the Genius._

Connie nodded. She had probably heard the nickname before, after all, most of the kids called her that and she was important. Also, she was Sam's girlfriend. Sam was important too and of course, everybody liked to gossip about important people's relationships. They were like the celeberaties of the FAYZ.

_I need to talk to Astrid. It is urgent. How?_

I decided the easiest way to show her was to draw a diagram. I drew a circle, the FAYZ barrier, and the lake. I stabbed my stick into the lake. I drew two more lines, Connie and I, pointing to the lake. I looked up, checking to make sure she understood. Connie nodded. My hand dropped to my weapon, a two foot long lead pipe. I was scared, but I didn't want Connie to worry about me, she was so kind. I turned away and went to find Astrid.


	14. Aftermath

**Important AN: ****I have started school again and we are already getting homework. Sadly, I have a lot of things going on at the moment, so I will only be able to update once a week. I will update on Saturdays from now on. Thanks again to all my reviewers and all the people contributing to my 1080 views! I never thought that my story would have so many people interested in it.**

**Sam**

I sprinted over to Percy and frantically tried to wake him up. His face was paler than usual and he had a gash on the side of his head, probably from when the roof collapsed. I slapped him in an attempt to wake him up, or at least provoke some kind of response. Sadly, it didn't work. I started to panic as I tried to think of ways to tell whether he was alive or not. The blood from his head wound was bleeding freely, soaking the ground and make knees. I thought over everything I had leant and then I leapt forward as the answer came to me. I slipped a little on the blood before deciding to just crawl over to his neck.

I pressed my fingers to his neck hoping for something, anything. Then I felt it, a small but steady _thump thump thump _of his pulse. The adrenaline that had been keeping me going deserted me as I struggled to not let my guard down. A tingling went up my spine and I shivered. I had forgot the one reason we were in this mess. Caine was behind me.

I turned slowly, waiting to see what he would do. He was looking at me warily and kept flicking his eye's in Percy's direction. His eye's narrowed slightly as he looked at him, not much, but just enough for me to notice.

"How many bars?" He asked me, eyes still flicking in Percy's direction. I wondered what he was going on about. I thought back to the fight. I remember being held by Caine with his powers when the ground had started to shake. I had just thought it was his telekinesis, but what if had been something else? What if… What if it had been Percy? I stared at the unconscious boy next to me. I knew he was a Demi-God, but could he really create an earthquake. I dismissed the idea quickly. From his display of water powers when I first met him, I would've thought he would have some control. Anyway, why use a power when you didn't know how. Especially when it could easily bring a roof down on your head.

Caine was still looking at me, one eyebrow raised. I realized that I had been so lost in my thoughts that I had forgotten to answer his question. I thought about what I would say. One and two bars were both out, they were much less powerful than that. Four and above was a bad idea, Caine would feel threatened. I knew three bars was still not powerful enough but I didn't have many options.

"Three I think." It slipped out but I was silently cursing myself. Caine wouldn't believe it if I sounded that unsure. He proved my point by raising his eyebrow even more. I looked around for Edilio and Toto. They had to be somewhere to. When I saw no sign of them, I looked back over at Caine, who was still watching me, his eyes cold and untrusting.

"We need to find them." I told him. He seemed to understand my urgency as his gaze fell to the rest of the room, which had piles of the roof scattered around. I knew he wouldn't stay silently for ever. Later, when everyone was alive and found, Caine would be demanding answers about Percy.

**Edilio**

My eyes opened before slamming them shut again. I opened them again, blinking in the sunlight. I sat up slowly, my whole body screaming in protest. A big slice of the ceiling was balancing on my leg. I tried to wiggle my toes and my fears were confirmed when I nearly blacked out from the pain. I was seriously injured, and we still needed to convince Caine to help us fight Gaia. I looked around, a jolt of pain coming from my leg as I moved it slightly. I could see a small body in the distance, a shard of rock perturbing from their stomach. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Toto was dead, he had been annoying but it didn't mean he should've died. He was still so young, only a kid, but then I guess we were all kids here.

I knew I needed Sam to move the ceiling off my leg. Caine would be better, but I wasn't completely convinced he wouldn't kill me as soon as he saw me. We had lied to him, and everything had gone horribly wrong.

I imagined what would have happened if Percy had never come. I was sure he had been the one to cause the earthquake, although I wasn't sure how. If he hadn't come then Caine and Sam could already be on their way. I would be going around town or thinking about all those kids by the barrier. I closed my eyes and stopped imagining. If I didn't move the ceiling off my leg then the muscles could die. I wasn't sure Lana could heal that, or that I wanted to even try.

The only thing remotely close was when she healed Drake's amputated arm. It had turned into a whip which he now use to kill people. Even when she had healed Cigar's eyes, they hadn't been normal, they had been like light bulbs, driving him firmly over the edge of sanity. I shivered at the thought of those mutations. I decided to contemplate shouting for help.

On one hand, it would help somebody to find me, so I would actually be able to at least move around. Somebody might just find me anyway but it was way less likely. The only people who I could imagine looking for me here were Sam and Percy, if they were alive anyway.

The problem with shouting for help was Caine could hear me. If he decided to come I could be killed if he was angry enough. At the very least I would earn some more bruises to go with the injured leg.

I decided I was over thinking it. For all I knew, nobody would here me and I would just stay here, stuck, until I died of dehydration.

"Help" I croaked out, I hadn't realised before how dry my throat was. I cleared my throat before shouting, "Help!"

I kept shouting for a while, hoping for someone to come. I didn't care if it was Caine anymore. I finally stopped, my throat feeling like I had swallowed a bucket of sand. I stayed there for a while, lying on the ground, staring at the nearly clear sky. My eyes closed against my will, my last thought before I was dragged into the never ending depths of sleep, _Help me, please._


	15. The Revelation

**AN: I am doing German Exchange next week so I will not be able to update. I'm really sorry that I'm not updating much!**

**Percy**

At least I wasn't dead. That was my first thought when I regained my consciousness. I thought I was going to die, but I guess I'm just to hard to kill. I couldn't feel anything, which was good. Well, it wasn't really, but I knew that causing a roof to fall on top of myself had to hurt. A lot. I didn't want to wake up. It was so peaceful. There were no people asking for my help, no wars. It was like a dreamless sleep, except I felt wide awake.

The darkness stretched on for as far as I could see. I couldn't feel anything, but I didn't feel terrified like I did when I was flying. I didn't want to go back. I wanted to stay here, in the peaceful darkness. Nothing seemed to matter. Nobody seemed to matter. It was just the darkness and I.

It felt like an eternity had passed before the feeling started to return. _No! _I tried to yell, but I couldn't make a sound. I didn't want to leave the little world of peace I had found. A jolt of pain snapped my eyes open.

As I blinked against the bright light a silent tear fell down my face. I was back, I had to fight another war. As the pain increased I focused on one thing. I would do this for Annabeth. I would make sure Gaia couldn't kill her. I would make sure she stayed alive.

I turned my head slightly to the side and let out an involuntary groan. I ached everywhere. Rubble piles were dotted around me. I looked out for any signs of living things. I needed to find Sam, Edilio and Caine. I wasn't sure I wanted to find Caine though. He had attacked us before I used my powers. The thing was, he had a good reason to attack. We had lied to him.

I wondered how long I had been unconscious. I looked up at the sky, the sun was setting, which was casting an array of colors across the sky. I wasn't sure if less than a day had passed or a week. I was pretty sure it was still the same day, or I hoped that Sam or Caine or Edilio would've found me if a week had passed.

I took a deep breath before shakily standing up. I wobbled slightly, nearly falling back down. I lifted my head in determination. I had to make sure everyone was okay. I unsteadily made my way across the earth. My eyes scanned the ground and rubble for any signs of a body. I continued to walk, my throat screaming for water, my stomach rumbling.

I came across another pile of rubble but this one was different. It was on top of a leg. Edilio's leg. My guilt rose up as I realized that this was all my fault. I had caused the earthquake. I had lost control.

I shook my head and started to move the ceiling of his leg. I was rewarded with another jolt of pain as I bent over, before nearly passing out again when I tried to lift it. I straightened and blinked a couple of times, clearing the darkness at the edge of my vision. I needed help.

"Sam! Caine! Somebody! Over here!" I yelled as hard as I could. Then I waited for someone, anyone to come.

**Sam**

"Sam! Caine! Somebody! Over here!"

I stopped walking and looked over at Caine. That was Percy, but he wasn't where we left him. I looked in the direction of the yelling and started o jog over, my body high on adrenaline. I dodged the parts of the ceiling as I tried to find Percy and hopefully someone else. Then, I caught sight of his black hair and increased my speed. I could hear Caine running behind me.

I stopped as soon as I saw him. Edilio looked terrible. If I hadn't seen the slight rise and fall of his chest I would've said he was dead. Percy didn't look that much better. He was paler than usually, his breath was uneven and he was shaking slightly on his feet. He gestured to the rubble on top of Edilio's leg.

"I couldn't move it on my own." He turned over to Caine, "Why don't you just use your powers to lift it?"

Caine narrowed his eyes slightly at the mention of powers but raised his hand anyway. As the ceiling floated over to another little pile of rubble, I checked Edilio's leg. It was a mixture of bruises and at one point the bone was sticking out of his thigh. Percy paled even further, while Caine frowned. I was speak less for a moment before I turned to them.

"We need to take him to Lana." Percy nodded his head quickly while Caine started to glare at him. He turned to me and I knew that he wasn't going to help us at all, with Gaia or Edilio. I knew that I wouldn't be able to carry Edilio without his help, Percy would try to help but he wasn't strong enough at the moment. I also knew that Caine could be the deciding factor when we fight Gaia.

"What are you?" He asked turning to Percy. I looked down at the floor. I decided to stay silent. It was Percy's secret, not mine. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Percy stare straight into Caine's eyes. I smiled slightly. He wasn't letting Caine intimidate him, which was great.

"I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, the Greek god of Earthquakes, horses and the sea. I'm the savior of Olympus, defeater of Kronos and Gaia. I am one of the only three people to survive Tartarus and I came to help you defeat the Gaiaphage."

We all stayed still for as moment. Me looking at Percy with a slight smile, Percy standing straight with a massive grin plastered to his face and Caine, who was staring at Percy without showing any emotions.

"We should go find Quinn. He would be able to take Edilio to Lana while we fight Gaia." I told them. Caine nodded, his face still emotionless. We each grabbed a part Edilio and started navigating our way to the beach and Quinn.


	16. Why?

**Edilio**

My leg screamed in pain as we started moving to the beach. I closed my eyes tight, trying to hide all my emotions. I didn't want to show any weakness in front of Caine.

A thousand thoughts ran through my head but it all lead back to my leg. To the pain. I knew Caine would ask about the earthquake sooner or later and I knew he would be able to see through any cover story we could ever come up with. He had the power to kill me at any moment and I wouldn't be able to stop it. I was helpless.

I opened my eyes again as we walked down the beach. I could see the silhouettes of the boats in the distance, they were coming closer. Sam waved his hand in the air, trying to bring Quinn's attention to us. I felt like an idiot. How was I supposed to make kids listen to me if I could barely standing up?

As the boats pulled into the dock I could see Quine looking at us, worry and confusion obvious on his face. He ran over to us, wobbling ever so slightly as he tried to become used to standing on land after fishing all day. He sent a glare at Caine, he was still angry at him, before looking over at Percy and finally sweeping his eyes to me.

"What happened to you?" He asked, as his eyes flicked to Caine. "What did you do?"

Quine's anger was increasing every second and Caine looked like he would happily throw the fisherman into the sea and kill him. Percy seemed to sense the anger rising as well as he stepped forward. Caine held one hand up and I could feel an invisible giant hand supporting me.

"Stop. Caine didn't do anything, I did."

Quinn threw the punch so quickly I hadn't realized he was going to hit Percy until it was too late. Percy's hand came up as fast as lightning and caught Quinn's fist a few centimeters from his face. Quinen's eyes widened as Caine's narrowed.

"Quinn, you need to take care of Edilio while we go and fight Gaia." Sam told Quinn as he stepped in front of Percy. I averted my eyes from Quinn's gaze. I didn't want his pity. I didn't wan to answer the questions. I didn't wan to be looked after. I just wanted to be alone. Once again my thoughts drifted off to _what ifs_. I quickly shut those thoughts out. No point in thinking about that. The only thing I could do was stay in the present.

I felt Quinn put his arm around my shoulders for support. We trudged down the beach, Quinn wasn't struggling too much, probably because he spent all day everyday fishing. I knew he had a million questions but I also knew he wouldn't ask, just wait for me to tell him. The only problem was I wasn't sure that I could.

**Percy**

Every cell in my body was yelling at me to stay. I hadn't known Edilio for long, but I knew he was a good guy. He didn't deserve it. I knew the roof collapsing was all my fault, and that just made my loyalty harder to ignore. I forced my legs to move: left, right, left, right. I wanted to go back and stay with Edilio until he was better, but at the same time I wanted to help defeat the Gaiaphage to protect Annabeth and the countless people it would kill.

We had only been walking for a few minutes before Caine started asking questions.

"What are you?" He asked in a threatening tone. It didn't bother me that much, I had fought in two wars and been through Tartarus, Caine wasn't that scary. Sam, on the other hand, stiffened slightly. I wasn't sure if it was because he wasn't sure how we could answer or because he was afraid of his twin.

I wanted to ignore him and walk away, but Caine was a major ally that we couldn't lose. I couldn't put that many lives at risk because of my secrets.

"A Demigod," I told him. I waited for the next question which never came. Instead, he spoke a simple statement.

"I don't believe in God." I couldn't help but smile at that. Caine was smart, not because he read a lot of books or was great on computers, but because he never asked any stupid questions. I've always how so many people never seem to have any clue what Demigod means, even though it literally means Demi (half) god. At least I wasn't going to have to seriously dumb it down for him. I didn't want to have to tell him everything, though. I didn't trust Caine that much. Instead, I decided to answer his questions but not say anything else important.

"I don't either." I replied. Caine looked over at me, letting his confusion show.

"How can you not believe in your own father?" He asked. I decided to tell him about my heritage, he needed to know that and if I didn't tell him then the conversation would become overly cryptic.

"My dad's Poseidon, Greek god of the sea and earthquakes." I told him. Sam stayed completely silent, waiting to see what we would do. Caine waited for me to tell him more, but I never did. He narrowed his eyes when I didn't offer my life story straight away. We looked at each other and I knew he knew my plan and he knew I knew he knew.

Sam continued to stay silent, leaving me wondering exactly how easy his life must have been. After Tartarus, Annabeth and I had to hide are emotions, and we never really offered the information to anyone. Sam wasn't dumb, but I could tell that Caine was smarter. He knew when people were planning anything, including me.

"How did you get here?" He asked, catching me off guard. To be honest I should've seen it coming, but I was expecting him to ask the other questions, like most people would. Something along the lines of '_Is everything real?'_

"A gift. From my father." I responded. He nodded slightly, his eyes calculating something.

"Why did he give you the gift?"

**AN: Sorry for the shorter chapter. I'm really tired because I had rowing for 2 hours and then my sister decided to annoy me and I had English homework that my teacher expects to have loads of great punctuation and massive words in. That's GSCEs for you. I hope you like this chapter and that any readers who would've been thinking 'Why did Poseidon give them the gift?' (I know I would) will just have to wait for a while (I feel so cryptic!) I'm rambling now so thanks for all your reviews and one last question:**

**Why can't Percy go on an airplane? (Cookies for anyone who guesses correctly)**


	17. Memories

**AN: Thank you for all your reviews! I have cookies for the following people...**

**Nobody has no body**

**ILoveBacon3**

**blue bocon**

**Matt**

**Here you go! (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)**

**Now on with the story!**

**Annabeth**

I stared at the head in front of me. Drake's head. All thoughts of Caine abandoned me as I stared at the unnatural thing in front of me. I wasn't squeamish after being in two wars so instead of screaming my mouth turned down in a frown, my eyebrows coming together as I tried to figure out how it was possible.

"Ta-da?" Dekka echoed, her face losing its colour quickly. She was staring at Brianna and at that point I was too. I didn't know what to feel. Happy that Drake couldn't kill more people, scared because Drake could never die, disgusted because he was staring at all of us through his lopsided eyes.

Astrid and I stepped forward at the same time, nearly knocking into each other. I stepped back slightly, leaning forward. I looked at him for a moment before stepping back, I had no idea how it was possible and I doubted I would be able to figure it out by staring at his head.

Astrid, on the other hand, was staring intently at Drake. She was thinking about something hard.

I let my mind drift to Percy. I wondered how he and Sam were doing. I hoped Caine didn't hurt them. I knew Percy could fight well, he could take care of himself. That didn't stop me worrying though. At least he didn't have to fight Drake now.

"One down." Dekka shook me from my thoughts. "Now, what are we going to do?"

All our attention was drawn back to the head, a lizard tail added on to it. He was wheezing loudly, eyes glaring at Astrid and Brianna.

"Sam can fry him." Brianna answered. I looked at Brianna, I thought she would've found out that Sam left by now. I turned to Astrid.

"He's gone."

I walked over to Drake, he was the enemy. "Tell us about Gaia."

He moved his lips, a voiceless answer being mouthed as I watched. Brianna was grinning wildly in the corner of my eye, which I thought was slightly worrying. I refocused my attention on Drake. I tried asking one more question, "Where are Diana and Gaia?"

He swore silently but didn't say or mouth anything else. I looked at his badly healed head. I wondered, would he be able to regenerate completely? I thought about how many separate parts of him must be scattered around. I hoped he couldn't but I wasn't sure.

"Can he regenerate the rest of his body?" I watched as Astrid's and Dekka's faces fell. "We need to put him in something. Do you have a container of some sort?"

After a long time of searching and tying Drake was in a cooler with a long bike chain wrapped around it. The cooler was filled with rocks and had multiple holes in it. We struggled to carry it up onto the deck before dropping it overboard. I watched him fall through the air before hearing a loud _Splash! _

**Percy**

"I don't know." I answered honestly. Caine stared at me,one eyebrow raised. Sam seemed interested as well. After a few moments, Caine spoke.

"I don't know why I'm here. This is a suicide mission." I couldn't help it, I laughed. After being through countless suicide missions it didn't seem as scary. I knew there were worse things than death. I had been through some of them, like Tartarus. Caine and Sam stared at me strangely, but it seemed like my laughter was contagious. Sam cracked a smile before he laughed and eventually even Caine was laughing a little bit.

I wiped the tears out of my eyes as Caine started to look serious again. Sam collected himself next to me.

"You're here for Diana. Don't try and deny it Caine." Sam told his twin, smiling broadly. Caine scowled but I could see the fairest hint of red coming out in his cheeks. I stayed quite though, not wanting to ruin everybody's good mood.

I felt the hot sun on my back as only a few clouds drifted lazily in the distance, outside the FAYZ. The air was still, no wind blowing, but I didn't mind. The air shimmered slightly because of the heat. I closed my eyes for a moment, enjoying the peace.

"What happened to you?" Caine interrupted. I could feel my mood darken as memories flashed so quickly through my mind I could barely see each one. What happened to me? Kronos. Luke. War. Memory loss. Tartarus. Another war. Countless quests, most with death of my friends in them. I closed my eyes as I tried to stop my powers exploding out of me.

I thought of Annabeth. She could always calm me down, even in the deepest parts of hell. Just knowing that she was safe brightened my mood slightly, but enough to stop myself from causing another earthquake. I

I opened my eyes again. Sam took a step away from me, fear evident in his eyes. I knew I looked scary. My friends had told me how I looked when I was angry, and I was angry. Not at Caine, but myself. I was angry at myself because I let so many people die.

"Two wars and hell." I told him, trying to calm my own emotions down. He thought for a second before nodding slightly.

"Is the underworld really that bad?" I smiled slightly.

"No, but Tartarus is." I saw Caine's eyes widen slightly at my comment. I could see a mineshaft in the distance. A bad feeling settled in my gut, as we approached it. I stayed silent as we walked. Caine stopped asking questions and Sam didn't try to start a conversation.

My thoughts drifted to my friends outside the FAYZ. Would everyone be worried about me like last time or did Poseidon tell them what happened. I wondered if Nico or Mrs. O'Leary could shadow travel into the FAYZ or if Piper would be able to charmspeak Gaia. I shook my head to clear it while I carried on walking in comfortable silence.

**AN: The question of the week is...**

**What was the first monster Percy killed?**


	18. The Mineshaft

**AN: First of all, I'm really sorry about not updating last week. I wish I could make it up to you guys with a double update but I don't have the time to write that much- unless I wrote it really badly. Secondly, well done Matt and ILoveBacon3 for guessing the answer right! In the movie, Percy's first monster was the Minotaur but in the books it was a Fury.**

**Here's some cookies! (::)(::)(::)(::)**

**Now, I have 2 plans I could take with this story. Vote in the comments please. Do you want Nico in the story?**

**Sam**

As we stopped outside the mineshaft I waited. I was expertly to feel something, anything. This mineshaft had held one of the worst creatures in existence. It had to leave something. It couldn't just feel like a normal mineshaft. I wondered for a moment why I was waiting. Then I realized. I was scared of it. I would still go in there to save everybody but that didn't stop my fear.

I turned to look at Caine. "I don't feel it."

He paused a moment, looking into the darkness. "Me neither."

Percy stepped forward, blocking Caine's view of the mineshaft and asked, "Are we going in or not?"

Caine shook his head. He continued to look over Percy's shoulder into the darkness, his eyes lost in thought.

"I went down there." He told us, his eyes never once leaving the never ending blackness. "It wasn't fun."

"I can imagine." I blurted out. As soon as I said it I wish I hadn't. Percy shot me a look, his eyes holding a warning that I shouldn't say anymore. I looked down at my feet, waiting for someone to say something.

"You can't." That was Caine's simple reply, but I could her the pain in his voice. In that moment, Caine wasn't just the person that I had to be careful around so he didn't kill me, he was just another kid stuck in the FAYZ with no way to get out.

I looked back up at Caine. His eyes were still lost in thoughts. He looked sad. Alone.

"Lana knows," he continued. "I guess Diana know now too."

Caine kept looking down into the never ending hole. Percy stepped up to him, forcing Caine to meet his eyes.

"I know."

Caine looked away. "That's different. The Gaiaphage... it gets inside you and doesn't let go. It never lets go."

I felt anger bubble up inside me. "Is that what your going to tell everyone? That the Gaiaphage made you do it?"

"I won't be the one telling the story." Caine began softly. "It will be all those kids that did nothing. The ones that didn't draw any attention to themselves."

I thought about it. My anger faded as I stood there, waiting for Caine to explain his point of view.

"He's right." Percy started, "After I came back from Tartarus, everyone treated me a bit differently from before. The new campers, the ones that didn't really know me, they were scared of me. They never said it out loud but people were scared of what I'd been through. They could all say they lived long enough, fought monsters, even been in two wars but I could say I did all that and went through hell. Literally."

**Edilio**

I waited patiently on the dock for Quinn and Albert to arrive. Lana had managed to heal my leg a few hours ago. I was still expecting the pain to return, like Lana's healing touch was temporary.

I saw them coming in the distance, the other fishermen acknowledging them in some way. They waved at Quinn while they shouted some not so nice remarks at Albert. I prepared myself for Albert's arrival. I needed to be calm, diplomatic. I was the person who wasn't allowed to become angry at Albert, no matter how much I thought he was a coward for running away at the first sign of danger.

Quinn pulled up at the dock, the boat sending small waves towards the edge of the water. The boat slid to a halt around a meter behind me.

I turned and walked towards them. I stopped a scowl forming on my face as I greeted Albert.

"I'm glad you could come. We need your help." I reached down and helped him out of the boat onto the dock. Quinn stayed silent in the boat.

"I'm not surprised." Albert started. I stayed silent, without Albert most of the kids talking to their parents would die. We needed him. Albert wasn't finished speaking, though. He stopped my thinking as he continued, "You need people working again and you've figured out that no amount of begging or reasoning will ever work."

I thought back to everything we had tried. Nothing had worked. I added one last statement to his comment, "threatening didn't work either."

Albert smiled slightly. "You just used the wrong threat. I brought some paper and a Sharpie. I need some sticks."

I gave him a questioning look which he completely ignored before we went to work.

A while later, I'm not sure how long, we were walking to the barrier. The whole place stank because nobody had bothered to dig a trench for a toilet. The children wore clothes that were either too small or too big for them, filled with holes and covered in what I hoped was mud. The journalists and news channels were interviewing them using signs and screens, the kids writing on anything they could find.

I was carrying as many signs as I could. Albert walked up to the largest crowd of children, flinging his backpack off his shoulders.

"I have cheese!" Albert threw the cheese that had been hidden in his back to the children. The affect was instantaneous. Everyone ran to eat the cheese, I had to stop myself from taking control and restoring order as I saw a ten year old boy shove a young girl down in desperation. I saw some kids running to secluded areas to eat their cheese as quickly as they could.

This was were I was supposed to come in. I walked forward and helped Albert set up the signs for all the adults to see.

_These kids are going to starve if they sit here watching you._

_They need to get back to work. If you keep them here, they will die._

_We can feed them if they work. Go away or stay and watch them die._

_You can visit from 5p.m. to 8p.m. daily. Now leave._

Finally, we put the last sign up, the sign that I didn't agree with but that Albert refused to help without.

_Alberco: Feeding your kids. Albert Hillsborough, CEO._

**AN: I hope you liked it! The question of the week is...**

**What river did Percy swim in to become ****invincible?**


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